Most Pro-Lifers Are Relieved The Personhood Amendment Failed In Mississippi

The controversial Mississippi Personhood Amendment was defeated
55-45 last night. But it was just as much a victory for
traditional pro-life groups as it was for pro-choice ones.

The Rev. Jimmy Porter, director of the Mississippi Baptist
Convention’s Christian Action Commission, summed up the
feeling of many pro-lifers who supported Mississippi's Personhood
amendment.

“We mourn with heaven tonight over the loss of Initiative
26, which would have provided the hope of life for thousands of
God’s unborn babies in Mississippi. Instead the unborn in
Mississippi will continue to be led down on a path of destruction
to horrible deaths both inside their mothers and in
laboratories.”

But most pro-lifers are breathing a little easier tonight.

The "Personhood" Amendment did not have the support of the major
pro-life groups. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the
Episcopal and Methodist Churches refrained from supporting it. As
did the National Right to Life Committee and Americans United For
Life.

In fact going back to 2009, Mississippi's Catholic Bishop Joseph
Latino didn't even want the issue
to come up:

“I join with Catholic bishops in several other states in not
endorsing personhood petitions to be circulated in our Catholic
parishes. We have committed ourselves to working for a federal
amendment and feel the push for a state amendment could
ultimately harm our efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade.”

Since the Supreme Court case Casey v. Planned Parenthood
reaffirmed Roe, most pro-life activists have worked on a
strategy of incrementaly restricting access to abortion, and
chipping away carefully at the legal edges of Roe. The
strategy has had undeniable success. They have restricted public
funds from abortion through the Hyde Amendment and regulated
clinics out of existence. They've added parental notification
laws and waiting periods in some states. The success in lowering
the incidence of abortion is undeniable.

There is another group of Pro-lifers, most prominently
represented by the American Life League, who support a "Personhood
Now" approach to pro-life activism. They believe that
instead of settling for small measures, pro-life activists should
simply articulate the whole truth that abortion destroys the life
of a human person.

They argue that by directly challenging Roe in this way they can
achieve all the pro-life movement's goals in just a few simple
steps.

But the
incrementalists believe that this silver bullet approach
accomplishes little while risking much. The head of Wisconsin
Right to Life has made the
case against "Personhood" Amendments. The reasons are as
follows

Personhood amendments may overturn existing
laws restricting abortion, because states treat abortion and
homicide as legally different actions. Abortion restrictions
would have to be replaced with fetal-homicide
laws.

Legal
challenges to the Personhood amendment could result in the
awarding of legal fees to Planned Parenthood

If a
Personhood Amendment was construed to ban abortion it may go to
the Supreme Court which currently has a pro-Roe majority, one
that might take the opportunuity to rule against the
"personhood" of unborn children, and possibly reversing the
incrementalists' legal gains.

In
other words, if you don't expect a good answer, don't ask the
question.

It's hard to imagine more fertile ground for a Personhood
Amendment than Mississippi. That it was defeated there so
resoundingly will discourage other pro-life activists from trying
this silver-bullet approach again.

What many are casting as a victory for a woman's right to choose
may really be a victory for the persistent and successful
mainstream pro-life movement.